Dining reservations. Virtual queues. Lightning lanes. Rope drop. Sometimes it seems like a Walt Disney World vacation requires a level of planning on par with the Normandy Invasion! However, I am here to tell you that it is possible to enjoy a day in the parks with a minimal level of planning. As long as you are flexible and set your expectations correctly, you can have an amazing day without spending hours pouring over spreadsheets.
In this article, I’ll explore my steps to having a great and satisfying day at Walt Disney World without a lot of stress.
STEP ONE: Set Your Expectations
The first thing to understand is that it is nearly impossible to experience everything at a Disney Park in one day. So if this is your expectation, wipe that from your mind immediately. You are not going to get everything done in one day, so don’t beat yourself up if you miss something.
The second thing you need to understand is that Walt Disney World is not a place where you can just wing it. If you think you are just going to roll in whenever you happen to wake up, you generally are not going to get everything you want done. You need to have some semblance of a plan, even if it is a minimal one. You’ll see what I am talking about as we get further into this article.
STEP TWO: Familiarize Yourself With the Park
This is where the minimal planning begins. There are some basic things that you should learn about the Park you are visiting. Think of it as homework, except that it’s fun homework that you actually WANT to do!
Understand the General Layout of the Park
You can go online at the Walt Disney World website and view maps of each of the parks. You can use either the interactive maps, or you can download a PDF version of the park maps that you can pick up on-site and print them out. Don’t worry about committing them to memory… this isn’t some spy movie. Just get a general feel for the different lands or areas in the park. That way, you have a rough idea where things are located, what is near what, and so forth.
Here are links to information about each park. Click on the “Map” icon to go both the online map and to download a PDF version of the park map.
Find Out Hours of Operation
Know what times the park opens and closes. If you are staying on-property, you should also find out if there are early entry hours or extended evening hours perks that are available to you.
You can find a calendar of park hours here. Note that hours of operation do change from time to time, so it pays to recheck them as your trip gets closer.
Learn More About the Rides / Dining / Shows
Each park has its own collection of attractions, character meets, shows, parades, fireworks, and dining. Learn a bit about what is available at the park so that you can start to put together a list of “must-do’s”. The Walt Disney World interactive maps are a good resource. You can scroll through the map, locate attractions, click on them, and learn more. Feel free to supplement that with third-party web site info and even YouTube videos if you desire. However, be forewarned that many of these third-party info sites contain spoilers, so if you want to go in blind, you might want to stick to the official Disney information. Disney generally keeps things spoiler free.
Find Out About Special Seasonal Events
Certain parks have special activities based upon the time of year. Epcot, in particular, is famous for this. Throughout the year, there are various festivals at Epcot which may have limited time decor, food, attractions, and entertainment options.
If you happen to be traveling during the holiday season, Disney has a lot of holiday magic to enhance your visit that you might want to take advantage of.
STEP THREE: Prioritize What You Want To Do
Now that you have a feel for what there is to do, you want to decide what experiences to focus on. I suggest keeping it simple and come up with a list of three to five items that are “must do”. Then you can plan your day around those items.
Don’t forget to include experiences like dining, fireworks, parades, and character meets. If there is a particular restaurant that you must dine at, include it!
I think three to five is a good number to use for must-do’s, as that is a number that is achievable in a single day.
Obviously, if you are traveling with a group, each person might come up with different “must do”. If that’s the case, come up with a way to take into account everyone’s input.
One idea is to split your party up into separate groups for part of the day. One common pattern is to have the “thrill seeker” group who splits off to do the roller coasts, and have the “gentle ride” group who prioritizes the more tame attractions. Our family falls into this category. Banshee and Little Buster are the thrill seekers, while Little Banshee and I are not. What ends up happening is that they will go off and ride Space Mountain, Tron, etc, while Little Banshee and I enjoy more tame rides like the Peoplemover or Tomorrowland Speedway!
If you are going to spend multiple days at a single park, you can include that in your negotiations. We can do X on Wednesday, but we can do Y when we are back in the park on Friday!
Note that I didn’t suggest coming up with other prioritization categories like “nice to do”, etc. The goal of my minimal planning is to allow for flexibility. Plan around the “must do”, and then play it by ear for everything else!
STEP FOUR: Have a Basic Plan for the Must Do’s
Your day is going to structured around experiencing the three to five must do items that you have selected in Step Three.
Rides
If your must do’s include a popular ride that generally has longer wait times, you’ll need to decide how you are going to handle it. Here are some options to think about:
- You can just join the standby line “whenever”, but then you might be faced with a multi-hour wait time depending up on the ride and the time of day.
- You can figure out when the ride’s wait time might be lowest, and join at that time. In general, wait times are lowest when the park opens, so one great option would be to “rope drop” the ride (get in line right when the rope to allow guests into the park drops). This option is even better if you have early park entry, since only resort guests are in the park at this time.
- You can purchase Genie+ or an Individual Lightning Lane to reduce your wait time.
- If the ride has a Virtual Queue, make sure you join the queue right when it opens at 7am. If you miss the 7am time, you can try again at 1pm if you are in the park, or you can purchase an Individual Lightning Lane
Obviously, if one of the rides on your must do list doesn’t generally have exorbitant wait times, then it probably doesn’t matter much when you ride it. Just join the standby line whenever you are in that area of the park.
You can and should combine these strategies if you have multiple popular rides on your must do list. For instance, let’s say that Space Mountain, Tron, and the Enchanted Tiki Room are among your must do’s. Your plan might look something like this.
- Space Mountain: This is a popular ride so we will plan to ride it as soon as the park opens.
- Tron: This ride has a Virtual Queue. We will attempt to join the queue at 7am. If we are successful, we will ride it whenever our return time is. Otherwise, we will purchase an Individual Lightning Lane for it to ensure we get to experience it.
- Enhanced Tiki Room: This ride generally doesn’t have a long wait time. Therefore, we will ride it whenever we happen to be in Adventureland.
Shows / Character Meets
These are pretty easy to plan around. Most of these have specific times when they occur. Just plan to show up a few minutes before the start time, and you should be golden!
Fireworks / Parades
While these have set times like the shows, there is some additional planning involved. First, you need to decide where you want to watch it from. Based upon that, plan to be in that area of the park. Second, you need to decide when you want to show up to claim your viewing spot. The Magic Kingdom fireworks show in particular is very popular. If you want to get a good spot in front of the castle, you might have to stake it out an hour or more in advance.
Dining
If you have a quick service location on your list of must do’s, there isn’t much to it. Plan to be there around when you might want to eat, order food, and enjoy!
Table service restaurants may require advanced reservations. Depending upon the popularity of the restaurant, you may have to claim your reservation 60 days in advance when reservations open. Even then, you might be out of luck. However, don’t despair. You can stalk the reservation site to see if someone cancels. Frequently, people cancel 1-2 days prior so that they avoid the cancellation fee, so keep an eye out for last minute availability.
If you can’t get a reservation, you can try walking up to the restaurant and see if they have a standby wait list. Or you can go with a Plan B choice. Honestly, there are so many great places to eat at WDW, so don’t stress if you don’t get your first choice. As long as you level set your expectations, you’ll be fine.
STEP FIVE: Park Day! Go with the Flow
Now that you have your day mapped out with a plan for your must do’s, all you have to do is show up to the park and have fun!
As you are navigating between your must do’s, now is the time to fill in your day with whatever tickles your fancy as you are touring the park. As you are making your way from Tron to the Enhanced Tiki Room, the Haunted Mansion might catch your eye. If you have the time, get in line! As you walk by Casey’s Corner, you might find that a hot dog is calling your name. Lunch time! I find that this makes for a much more pleasant day than trying to schedule out every single minute.
Here are some tips to help you go with the flow:
- If you are looking for something to do, be sure to check out the My Disney Experience app on your phone. There is an interactive map that shows where you are in the park, what other attractions are nearby, and their wait times. That might spark some inspiration if you are trying to figure out what to do next.
- Same thing for dining. If you are hungry, you can go into the My Disney Experience app and see what quick service and table service is available nearby. One day at Hollywood Studios, we were looking for a place to eat. We went into the app and it showed that we could get an immediate reservation at the Hollywood Brown Derby. We snagged it and had a great meal (love that Cobb Salad).
All that said, you are likely going to run into issues. One of your must do rides is temporarily closed. A rainstorm hits which sends you scattering to the nearest gift shop. It’s possible that you might miss out on one of your must do’s. Don’t stress! This is your opportunity to try something else. Perhaps that alternate attraction was one of your must do’s all along, but you just didn’t know it until you experienced it! I can’t tell you the number of times we tried something new without any expectations, and it ended up being a new favorite (I’m looking at you, Rafiki’s Planet Watch).
BONUS STEP: Tickets and Reservations
I probably should have put this first, but better late than never. Of course, you need to make sure that you have your admission ticket and (if applicable) an appropriate park reservations. This is probably the bare minimum of planning that you absolutely need to do. If you don’t even do this, then you are guaranteed to have a miserable day!
Summary
To summarize, here are Buster’s steps to having a great day at WDW with minimal planning
- STEP ONE: Set your expectations. You aren’t going to be able to do everything in a day, so give yourself some grace.
- STEP TWO: Familiarize yourself with the parks. Get to know the basic layout, what attractions are available, operating hours, and other special seasonal activities.
- STEP THREE: Prioritize what you want to do. Identify three to five “must do’s” for the day.
- STEP FOUR: Plan your day around your must do’s. Decide how you want to accomplish your must do items. Are you going to use Lightning Lanes? Will you need a Virtual Queue? Will you need a dining reservation?
- STEP FIVE: Park day! Execute your plan for your must do’s, going with the flow to fill in the rest of your time. If you need ideas for what to do, use the My Disney Experience app.
And, of course, don’t forget about your park tickets and reservations!
If you follow this simple formula, you can have a great WDW day without breaking out a single spreadsheet!
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